Court adjourns hearings in Politkovskaya murder case

Lawyers fail to turn up in court, hearing postponed until July 31st

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Dzhabrail Makhmudov. /ITAR-TASS/ Moscow City Court press service

MOSCOW, July 29. (Itar-Tass) - The Moscow City Court could not to continue the hearing for the criminal case regarding murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya. The reason for this was lawyers failing to turn up in court. Thuis the case hearing was postponed until July 31st.

On Monday, defendant Dzhabrail Makhmudov was left alone, without his two lawyers, who are engaged in other trials at the time. Judge Pavel Melekhin ruled to adjourn the court session to avoid violation of Makhmudov’s right for an attourney during the trial.

On October 7, 2006 Politkovskaya was shot and killed in the lift of her block of flats, an unsolved assassination that continues to attract international attention. Politkovskaya made her reputation reporting from Chechnya. Her post-1999 articles about conditions in Chechnya were turned into several books; Russian readers’ main access to her investigations and publications was through Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper known for its often-critical investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. From 2000 onwards, she received numerous international awards for her work. In 2004, she published a personal account: Putin's Russia. The 2007–2008 academic year at the College of Europe was named in her honour. Russia's Investigative Committee has completed investigation in April of 2013.